Driving Miss Daisy Confirms Dates, Tickets on Sale
UPDATED, Mon 27 Jun 2001 @ 11am: Full creative details and further cast information have now been added in bold to the story below.
The West End transfer of the hit Broadway play Driving Miss Daisy, starring Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones, is officially announced today (Saturday 25 June 2011). The production runs at Wyndham’s Theatre from 5 October to 17 December 2011 (previews from 26 September).
Alfred Uhry‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning play started life Off-Broadway, running for 1,195 performances at New York’s John Houseman Theatre from 1987 to 1990. In 1989, it was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman.
This revival, directed by David Esbjornson, ran at Broadway’s Golden Theatre from on 25 October 2010 to 9 April 2011 and earned Redgrave a Best Actress nomination in this year’s Tony Awards, announced earlier this month in New York.
Driving Miss Daisy centres on the decades-long relationship between a stubborn Southern matriarch and her compassionate chauffeur. When Daisy Werthan (Redgrave), a widowed, 72-year-old Jewish woman living in mid-century Atlanta, is deemed too old to drive, her son, Boolie, hires Hoke Coleburn (Jones), an African-American man, to serve as her chauffeur. What begins as a troubled and hostile pairing, soon blossoms into a profound, life-altering friendship that transcends the societal boundaries placed between them.
Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones will be joined in the West End by their original Broadway co-star Boyd Gaines, playing Miss Daisy’s son Boolie (played by Dan Ackroyd in the film). A Broadway veteran, Gaines has won four Tony Awards, for Gypsy, Contact, She Loves Me and The Heidi Chronicles. His film credits include Porkys, Funny Games and Fame.
Driving Miss Daisy is designed by John Lee Beatty, with costumes by Jane Greenwood, lighting by Peter Kaczorowski, music by Mark Bennett and sound by Christopher Cronin. It’s produced in the West End by Jed Bernstein and Adam Zotovich.
